The Journal Sentinel's expose leads with the tale of Aaron Key, a 19-year-old stoner whose mind is not quite all there. The ower of a head shop in Portland, Oregon, befriended Key and his friends online and then paid them to get neck tattoos advertising "Squid's Smoke Shop."

He and his friend, Marquis Glover, liked Squid's. It was their hangout. The 19-year-olds spent many afternoons there playing Xbox and chatting with the owner, "Squid," and the store clerks.

So they took the money and got the ink etched on their necks, tentacles creeping down to their collarbones.

It would be months before the young men learned the whole thing was a setup. The guys running Squid's were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street.

The tattoos had been sponsored by the U.S. government; advertisements for a fake storefront.

The teens found out as they were arrested and booked into jail.

Earlier this year, when the Journal Sentinel reported on an ATF sting operation in Milwaukee involving a "low IQ" informant, authorities wrote it off as an isolated act of rogue agents. The Journal Sentinel documents at least half-a-dozen stings from around the country that use the same "rogue" tactics of creating fake storefronts and using low IQ people to set stings in cities such as Pensacola, Florida, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Wichita, Kansas.

"There is enough crime out there, why do you have to manufacture it?" said Jeff Griffith, a lawyer for a defendant in Wichita. "You are really creating crime, which then you are prosecuting. You wonder where the moral high ground is in this."

Apart from the moral issues (which are huge enough), there's a question of whether such operations are worth a damn in terms of serious collars:

In Albuquerque, for example, a man who was twice indicted on first-degree murder charges, once for killing a man in prison, was later busted in a storefront sting for being a felon in possession of weapon.

But in many cases examined by the Journal Sentinel, the people charged in the stings had minor criminal histories or nonviolent convictions such as burglary or drug possession.

In several of those cases, defendants still got stiff sentences, but others resulted in little or no punishment. In Wichita, nearly a third of the roughly 50 federal cases charged led to no prison time. Defendants got probation or had their case dismissed, records showed. One was acquitted by a jury.

Not the results federal agents typically trumpet.

In the case of Aaron Key and Marquis Glover, the judge handling the cases was puzzled over the ATF's decision to cajole the teens (who were ultimately convicted of crimes that were enabled by the government) into getting tattoos.

In federal court, a prosecutor who handled several of the ATF cases, including Key's, tried to explain to a judge why the agents employed the tactic.

Key and Glover supposedly did this by suggesting they all smoke marijuana.

Kerin said the agents then proposed Key and Glover get tattoos as a way to get them off their trail.

The explanation didn't make sense to U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman, a former federal prosecutor.

"I guess I don't make the connection," Mosman said. "They're concerned that if, among other things, they don't smoke marijuana with this guy that they'll be given up as law enforcement, so they think a way to derail that is to suggest that he get a tattoo?"

Kerin tried again to explain.

"Mr. Key and Mr. Glover were trying to identify them as law enforcement or possibly testing to determine if they were law enforcement."

The judge cut in: "I think I understand that part. I just don't understand why you put someone off your trail by suggesting they get a tattoo. How does that help?"

The judge ordered the ATF to pay for the removal of Key's tattoo.

Read the whole story, which details both how the ATF sets up fake businessess and the paltry results such efforts get in terms of doing anything about fighting criminal activity. And then ask yourself (and maybe your law enforcement and political representatives) just how bad does the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have to be before it's finally disbanded?

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djf881Ujordan sargent231L 1.) Cops are the way they are because of the job we ask them to do. A segment of our population is dangerous and terrifying, and police have to control and contain those people.

The reason cops act the way they act is that the people they spend most of their time dealing with are awful. Because they regularly deal with irrational and violent people, they assume they are in danger during any interaction.

Because there are three hundred million guns in civilian hands in the United States police have to assume everyone they deal with is armed and dangerous. Any cop would rather shoot someone they erroneously believed was armed than get shot by someone they erroneously believed was not.

No they are not. Cops do that. They are not trained to do that. They are trained to do the opposite. They just don’t follow their training and don’t have to because they can’t be fired and are almost never charged with a crime.

The guys running Squid’s were actually undercover ATF agents conducting a sting to get guns away from criminals and drugs off the street. live out their depraved, sadistic fantasies of thug life while completely immunized from any adverse consequences.

Once again we see the BATFE abusing its authority and it has been running wild under the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and his Social Justice Dept and DHS…this is yet another case of harassing legal businesses. Legal businesses that the AGUSA/aka head of the Social Justice Dept and the resident of 1600 Penn Ave detest…so they send out the wolves to harass and close them down on nebulous charges

This is just so wrong on so many levels, it’s repulsive. This is a criminal enterprize, and a domestic terroris organization. This is it, the damn government has to go. Every single one belongs in prison, for life and the ring leaders deserve the death penalty. If you wait until this happens to you, it’ll be too late to do anything.

Hey now, those brave men and women put their lives on the line every single day! It takes an especially strong will to hang out in headshops with volatile drug users all day and not die of laughter at your own self-righteous idiocy. Full-time job, people, respect it.

Update from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel 12/11/13 In one case, Bryant bought a rifle for $700 from Gander Mountain that was sold for $2,000 just hours later to agents running the fake Fearless Distributing shop.